Irish Mini Owners Club

Hi all,

I'm new to the Mini scene. My father Peter Mc Nally was into them in a big way, and owned "The Mini Centre" on the N2 between Slane and Ashbourne. As far as I'm aware, Dad was a member of the club for quite a few years early on. I have a Mini in the shed and need some info and advise on it. On the logbook, its a Mini Cooper S, 1971, so I guess it's a MKIII. Can someone tell me what the tell tale signs of a Cooper S. From some research, mine has the front disc brakes, twin petrol tanks (although RHS one was taken out), 130mph speedo, angled grille bracket, Twin Carb (found inside car ) I would love to restore this to it's former glory as I've quite a bit of Mini stuff in the garage. This one got a pretty bad bang on the drivers side front. From initial examination, heavy front and wing damage and footwells are well bent back, I'm thinking re-shell is best option.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Doyne


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Welcome to the IMOC forum Doyne,

Many of the features you mentioned can be retrofitted to a standard Mini so they are not conclusive proof of the car's identity. The recognised gurus on original Coopers are the Mini Cooper Register and you can access their forum here:

http://forum.minicooper.org/

Details like chassis number, commission number will give more details.

If your car is a genuine Mk3 S, it's a valuable car and worth restoring properly. You may have seen last week's Channel 4 program on a Mk1 non-S Cooper which made £25k at auction, which is bonkers money but they don't make them anymore.

Keep us updated.

Billy

Hi Doyne ,spoke to you last week on the phone glad to see you joined the forum. Didn't realise Peter was your father ,knew him from years ago when he was in the club and would meet him at shows over the years. Nice to see more pictures of the Cooper, Like I said earlier it appears to be a cooper but one big thing I see now is that the engine is only a small bore ,proberbly 998cc. I see the moke in the photo and I know it has cooper discs ,would it also have the cooper engine. Its interesting that the speedo is KPH. I'm interested in looking at those doors you have so if you like I can drop over and give the car a proper look over for you.

Is it on hydrolastic suspension Doyne ?

woody wrote:Hi Doyne ,spoke to you last week on the phone glad to see you joined the forum. Didn't realise Peter was your father ,knew him from years ago when he was in the club and would meet him at shows over the years. Nice to see more pictures of the Cooper, Like I said earlier it appears to be a cooper but one big thing I see now is that the engine is only a small bore ,proberbly 998cc. I see the moke in the photo and I know it has cooper discs ,would it also have the cooper engine. Its interesting that the speedo is KPH. I'm interested in looking at those doors you have so if you like I can drop over and give the car a proper look over for you.

I did notice that the original Cooper engine wasn't in it, which is a pity. Should be 1275cc???? As far as I know the Moke has a 998cc engine in it, and i didn't even know it had discs on it. . Dad passed away 2 years ago and i'd like to restore something of his, keep his passion for Mini's alive!! Dad always talked about that car being special, it'd be great if it was a Cooper. I'm sure he held on to it for a reason.

I'd greatly appreciate any knowledge you can throw at me, and you can come up to see those doors anytime. Loads of other bits from early and later mini's too.

Cheers,
Doyne

Hi Doyne,
The front panel is cooper S and the regulator is also in the right place for a cooper S. A photo of the inside of the boot will confirm if it's an S or not. Someone might have changed the engine if it gave trouble earlier in its life. Don't reshell her it's not bad!
Cheers
Nev
086 2563752

nevsmini wrote:Hi Doyne,
The front panel is cooper S and the regulator is also in the right place for a cooper S. A photo of the inside of the boot will confirm if it's an S or not. Someone might have changed the engine if it gave trouble earlier in its life. Don't reshell her it's not bad!
Cheers
Nev
086 2563752

Nev, thanks for your input. Dad was an encyclopedia of knowledge, but I am only a newbie. What am I looking for inside the boot? I'll take a pic and upload it. As for reshell udea, I just thought frontend damage was gone beyond repair.

i'd second that call not to re-shell if at all possible. that car is worth a fair bit, even as sentimental value, let alone re-sale.